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User blog:Alvoria/Wiki Week Seven - Forum Moderator to Wiki Amin.
Last week I promised that I would start this blog entry out on a happy note. A lot of new pages have been added to the wiki this week. Things are slowly starting to fill in, which is good. In addition, I saw the latest snapshot and am really excited about the upside down stairs for decorating. Again, I think that Jeb really gets it and I'm wonderfully excited to see what all he's going to add to Minecraft. Now that that's over I guess I can be dour again. ;-) There are two frustrating things that I'm feeling in regards to the wiki. The first is that there are still so few people willing to contribute to the wiki. There are a couple of people on the forums that are complaining rather vocally about how the wiki is no help and that they want a readme instead. While I don't disagree that the wiki is incomplete, the problem that they don't seem to be getting is that CubeX2 isn't going to be able to write a 'complete' documentation of Custom Stuff while he continues to work on it. Doing one would take time away from the other, and now that CS is based on Javascript it would be really difficult to document everything anyway. Books on Javascript already exist. Likewise, we already have the basic triggers and whatnot documented in the Wiki. A bit crude, yes, but the basics are there for those with the intellect to pursue them and learn the system. Because no matter how difficult it is still WAY easier than learning Java and coding a mod the normal way. People forget that, and it kinda ticks me off. The other thing that's frustrating me is.. well... me. Being a forum moderator and being a wiki admin take very different mentalities. On an interent forum, things are structured into 'threads', ideas or topics that are discussed, questioned, clarified, complimented, expanded and distilled, in more or less a linear order. To preserve that order, there must be rules and moderators must maintain those rules in order to allow the flow of information and ideas to propigate unhindered. On a Wiki, there's a concept called "Good-faith editing." Someone writes something that they think is adding to the wiki, and so it should be allowed based on that trust.. Information is put forth in a non-linear fashion and basically without rules. Where as on a forum if someone posts something which does not seem to add to a discussion then it doesn't have a place. On the Wiki as long as whatever is written has some value it is a good thing and should be allowed to stay. The trick then is to organize the contributions of many contributors, but not into lines or threads, but into categories. Without the navigation of lines and threads the problem then becomes making sure information in every 'node' of the wiki can be linked to every other 'node' in a way that makes scattered information accessable in a logical fashion. This approach requires a delecate touch and a detachment from the concept of rules and order while still managing to maintain both. This... this is a new artform that I have only begun to explore. When someone posts a project without pictures or a download, when someone makes a tiny little page with the barest information, I have to resist the urge to remove the obstruction in the line, and organize these little particles in the cloud. It's not what I'm used to, but it's something I'm learning. :-) Hopefully I'm not sucking too baddly at it. ;-) Wow that was long and introspective. Sorry about that. I'll try to be more fun in future blog posts. :-) ~ PsychoSupreme 00:02, February 26, 2012 (UTC) BTW, in case anyone cares, my job interview got moved to next Firday so I have no idea if I got the position. :-( Category:Blog posts Category:Blog posts